


Renewed Shall Be the Blade that was Broken

by LeeMorrigan



Category: Star Wars, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, The Force Awakens - Fandom, The Last Jedi
Genre: F/M, Force Ghost Luke Skywalker, Force Ghost Obi-Wan Kenobi, Force Ghost Qui-Gon Jinn, Force Ghost Yoda (Star Wars), Gen, Han and Leia were loving parents, Lightsaber, Lord of the Rings reference, Mentions Lando, Mentions Leia's mom, Mentions Maz, Mentions Poe's mom, Mentions old Jedi Temple, Mostly takes place on the Falcon, Other, Skywalker Legacy, and the Temple guards, mentions Chewie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-09-15 13:44:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16934337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeeMorrigan/pseuds/LeeMorrigan
Summary: Rey has most of a ruined lightsaber, Leia has a secret, Poe has a relic, Finn has treasures. Together, they will forge a new destiny, and Rey will find a way to turn that broken lightsaber and the runes of a broken Resistance and an old legacy, into her own story. Finn/Ray sweetness and lots of tinkering with lightsabers.





	Renewed Shall Be the Blade that was Broken

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own STAR WARS, that'd be Disney.
> 
> Mentions nightmares, cave-ins, and other dire situations. References events show in the main STAR WARS films. Features Force-ghosts. Does briefly show some of the effects of growing up in the cold, sterile institution of the First Order causing Finn to hoard small bits and bobs- but it's almost blink and you'd miss it.
> 
> This was inspired by a recent gossip article about Rey having to repair Luke's old lightsaber and my brain first quoted J.R.R. Tolkien and then BAM, a story exploded in my brain.
> 
> Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy!

Rey felt the drop of sweat between the furrows of her brow as she attempted the jig-saw puzzle in her hands. She had removed the crystal from the one section, making sure it could not accidentally ignite and take off her hand or a few fingers while she was working. The plan was to start on the housing for the crystal, then make sure the power pack would work again, before she would make any attempts to put it all back together.

Sometimes, as she fiddled, she could feel the crystal. She had expected to feel the echo of Luke’s anger at her failure or even the crystal shouting at her in some way. She had not expected for it to feel peaceful. One of the few peaceful things in her life, at the moment.

For the past two weeks, they had been drifting through space, going from one safe haven to the next. In each location, Leia networked and Poe recruited. Poe’s friend, Jessica, would go out with Rose to scavenge, bargain, and barter for parts. Rey often went with Jessica and Rose, Finn would usually tag along with Poe. Sometimes though, she and Finn would disappear together and see what they could find.

The most-recent trip, they had come back with four escaped slaves and a ton ton pelt. Leia had not been thrilled to learn that the age of the new recruits, added together, did not equal 80. Poe had looked stricken when he saw how young, and how thin, their faces had been. Rey saw how badly they wanted to fight, to have a purpose, a sense of belonging. Finn had backed her up.

The Resistance stood at 90 strong, with Rose and a pilot off looking to recruit a few more on a quiet little mission Leia had sent them on. While the new recruits trained, Leia planned, and Rose was on a mission for more Resistance fighters, Rey was keeping busy with Luke’s lightsaber. She was determined to return it to working order.

As she worked to clean the scorch marks from the outer edge of the top, the events between she and Kylo played back in her mind. Their pulling, with him trying to get into her mind as he tried to yank the lightsaber away from her. How hard she fought to keep him out of her mind as she also tried to pry the heirloom away from him.

She had been sure of her vision. Sure she could bring Kylo back, make him be Ben again. Then she could bring him back to Luke, back to Leia, back to the good side. Then he had asked her to join him, to let her friends and his mother die, joining him in ruling the galaxy from the dark side. He had looked so betrayed when she refused him.

Her dark turn of mind was interrupted by a knock at her door. She had taken to living on the Falcon, not only in case she needed to take off in a hurry, but because it was home. It almost felt like she had always belonged there.

“Come in.”, she called.

The door slid open to reveal  Poe, with a tired smile gracing his face.

“What’re you doing? Building us a new, very small ship?”

Rey smiled, taking a moment to wipe her hands on a rag as she sat back.

“No. I’m uh… attempting to… It’s stupid.”

Crouching down to look more closely at her project, Poe shook his head. Looking up at her, his face looked like he had read her mind.

“Rebuilding Luke’s lightsaber. That’s not stupid.”

“Impossible, maybe.”

“Not with you working at it. I’ve seen some of the stuff you’ve fixed, even Rose and Jessica are impressed- and Jess doesn’t impress easily. The crystal still good?”

Rey nodded, picking it up to examine it in the light.

“I think so. It feels like it’s still alright.”

“Feels? Jedi thing, I take it?”

Rey nodded, feeling a little unsure. Poe just nodded with a one-shoulder shrug.

“So, what brings you to the Falcon, Commander Dameron?”

“I’m heading out on a recruitment trip in the morning. Want to come along? Finn will be busy getting lessons from Chewy on how to shoot better, so I figure that means you’ll be alone tomorrow and you do have a gift for connecting with people who duck Leia, Jess, and I.”

That made her smile.

“Thanks, Poe. And yes, I’ll go with you.”

“Good. I’ll swing by and get you after breakfast.”

“I’ll be here.”

Poe started to head out, but paused at the doorway.

“Rey?”

“Yeah?”, she asked as she turned back to face her ruined lightsaber.

“It isn’t stupid.”

She heard a jingling sound as she looked up. Poe was pulling something out from under his shirt, up through the neck of his shirt. When Rey looked more closely, she could see they were identification tags for a Rebel soldier.

“My mom’s. She had two sets, one she left with me shortly after I was born, when she had to leave me with my grandfather, for the first time. The other she wore and had with her when… I’ve worn these ever since.”

He held them out for Rey to see. They had clearly been bent, scratched, and even broken on one edge. Poe must have pounded them out and done his best to hold the antique tags together over the years. He slid them back around his neck, threading them down under his shirt, and patting a hand over where they rested, near his heart.

“Sometimes, I can’t remember what she looked like or what her voice sounded like. But I always remember hearing her tags when she came in to check on me at night, be it when she came in late from a mission or when she was home for a while and she was just checking in on me, or tucking me in. So when I hear these, I feel like she’s still here. Right behind me, watching my back.”

Rey felt tears stinging. She could not remember having that connection to a mother, or father, but she could imagine.

“Thank you.”

Poe nodded, then turned, walking back out. Rey let out a breath, allowing herself a moment to feel the echo of Poe’s overwhelming love and warmth at the memory of his mother, to warm her a little. Leia called it ‘recharging’. Rey liked the term.

*~*~*~*~*~*

In the three weeks since Rey began working on the lightsaber, it had begun to resemble a mangled, scarred hump of scrap metal instead of a civilized, elegant weapon. Rey only hoped she could at least make it functional again. A working lightsaber. She owed Luke that much, after tearing his lightsaber in half. It had belonged to his father, it belonged to Ben Solo, and she had broken it while taking it away from the man who should have been Ben Solo.

Rey was about to take a lunch break when she felt a familiar presence. She smiled. Finn.

“Rey?”

“Back here!”, she called from a little back room of the Falcon. It took him only a few seconds to find her, smiling as he came into the room.

“What are you working on? The lightsaber?”

“Yeah.”

Moving closer, Finn examined her work. It was coming along. At this point, he could almost tell what it was supposed to be without actually knowing in advance.

“You having any luck with the power pack and… the bottom end?”

She shrugged.

“I’m having a little trouble finding the right parts. Between the moving around and the lack of a real hanger or garage to work in, plus all these quick missions, I just can’t ever find the right pieces I need. Wrong material, not long enough, I don’t have the tool to cut a larger piece down- or sometimes I know the pilots need the longer pieces for their ships so I can’t cut up what we do have.”

“What do you need?”

“Some smaller pieces, nothing longer than any of my fingers. Thin. Able to help me move the power along, but they can’t heat up too much.”

Finn nodded, only following about half of what she was talking about. He was a good shot, he had learned that he made a decent pilot and was improving with every lesson, and he had turned out to be a good cook. Mending things and building things, he left to Rose and Rey. Rose’s new boyfriend, Harrond, was really good at building stuff.

“Here.”

Finn reached into his pockets, pulling out his little treasures. Everywhere he went, he picked little things up. Sometimes they were shiny, smooth pebbles no bigger than the pad of his pinky. Other times he picked up bolts or pins. Sometimes, when he was really lucky, he got small shells or carved bits of wood, stone, shell, bone, and metal.

He had several pieces of wire, some thin strips of tiny piping, and cuttings of metal sheets. He thought, just maybe, something in there would be useful to Rey. He also had another stockpile of treasures back in his room. He kept them in a bag.

Rey’s eyes lit up as she saw the small pile of items he laid out on the table she was working on. He kept them far enough that he would not accidentally send a piece into her eyes or the lightsaber she was working on.

“Where did you get all these?”

“”I’ve been picking them up, here and there, when I go with Poe, Rose, Jess, you, Chewie. It catches my eye, and I put it in my pocket. I have a bag, back in my room, with more stuff. If nothing here works, you might find something in the bag.”

“Thanks, Finn.”

She smiled up at him so brightly, Finn was sure she outshone the sun itself, on their desert planet they were currently holed up on.

“Maybe this.”, she muttered as she picked a small bit and put it into place. A moment later, her eyes lit up and she jumped to her feet, doing a little dance of joy. Then she flung herself at Finn, wrapping her arms around him.

“Thank you! Thank you! It worked!”

He smiled back, holding her close. They both jumped up and down a couple times before Rey tore away, moving back to the lightsaber. Finn pretended he wasn’t a little lost without the contact.

“Finn?”

Rey looked up, her face confused and eyes searching. There was a smudge of grease on her nose that he hadn’t noticed before.

“Hm?”

“What’s wrong? You seem… disjointed?”

Finn felt that was a good word for how he felt, though not the one he would have picked. He nodded.

“We’ve been so busy lately, I miss… this. Talking. Sitting together.”

She arched an eyebrow, in what he knew was her ‘considering’ face. Then she nodded.

“Stay. Poe and Chewy brought me a music… thing. It plays music, so we can turn it on and eat some of the fruit I got on Yelwyn II, while I work.”

Rey looked around at her little workshop she had made for herself on the Falcon.

“It is too quiet here.”

Finn smiled, moving to where she kept the ‘music thing’. Once he had it set up, he began slicing up some of the fruit she had tucked away. He might have taken little treasures from corners and out from under tables, but Rey got hers at markets and in forests, finding sweet edibles she and Finn had never had before. He tried not to think too hard on what she had said, that it was too quiet on the Falcon.

She had lived in Jakku with a lot of silence. No one else moved on the ships she scavenged, no one else was there to make noise in her little shelter of an old AT-AT. Then she had gone on an adventure with him and it was never quiet, between Han and Chewie bickering, and the constant running for their lives, they had been surrounded by noise. It wasn’t silent for her again until Kylo had her put in a room to torture her mind as he’d done to Poe.

Then they were fighting again, she was training with Luke, she was running missions with Poe or Jess, taking meetings with Leia, busy all the time. She had gotten used to the noise of life, of all the people in the Resistance, in the towns they went to, the ports they docked in. It was unsettling to be alone, in silence.

“Here.”

Finn handed Rey a small fork for her to stab her food with, since her hands were covered in grease. She thought nothing of eating with her dirty fingers, Finn was not comfortable with the idea of grease and soot in his food, from his fingers.  Poe and Chewy were helping he and Rey to have better manners, though Finn found he took to them more swiftly than Rey. Although he had dined in the mess with other storm troopers. Rey was used to eating alone.

“Thanks.”

“How are things with you and Rose?”

“Not bad. I like her new boyfriend.”

Rey nodded.

“He seems nice. Good at building stuff.”

BB-8 chose just that moment to roll in, chirping a cheerful litany in greeting. Finn watched as Rey smiled brightly at the little droid, chatting and teasing with him. The orange-painted droid whirled and beeped, happily showing off and goofing around to put a smile on his favorite person- aside from his master, Poe. Finn smiled to himself as he watched Rey and BB-8. He didn’t feel disjointed anymore.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Leia entered where she heard the frustrated growls coming from. She smiled as she walked. Luke tended to work quietly, or pleasantly chatting with whomever came to visit him while he worked. Leia tended to work diligently and quietly. Han, however, had always been one to mutter to himself, growl, yell at Chewie, throw things, and sometimes even curse the day he ever won the Falcon.

Leia had something she wanted to tell Rey, and while she was not sure the young woman was ready to hear it, she knew that she needed to tell her soon. It was a feeling, deep down. Rey needed to know.

“Rey?”

Something metal clanged loudly as it fell, followed by a small growl that Leia was sure wasn’t supposed to be loud enough to be overheard.

“Leia?”

“Poe said you were holed up in here working, again.”

Leia came around the corner, finding Rey bent over a pipe, booted toes holding her in place by the lip of a metal shelf, her hair falling in her face, and her hands dangling with a heavy set of tools laying on the floor below her. She looked almost exactly like Han had done, in a thousand other repairs done to the old ship.

“May I help?”

“I’m alright. Probably need a break anyway.”

Rey maneuvered herself up and to the edge of the hole where the grate should have been, then slid the grate back into place. Rey smiled up her, grease all over her hands, across her face, and on the front of her shirt. Leia was struck with the resemblance to Luke in his younger years. Ben had never been much on climbing into engines and toiling beside Han, Chewie, and Luke. He preferred being by Leia’s side, learning her work. But Breha, even when she was barely crawling, had been glued to Han’s side.

Leia was about to mention the grease when she saw Luke’s broken lightsaber sitting on the little table to the side. The same table where Chewie and R2 used to play games of strategy together while she, Han, and Luke figured out what to do next in the real battles.

“Any luck with the lightsaber?”

Rey’s face fell into a scowl.

“I’ve gotten most of it fixed, I’m just having trouble with the lower part of the housing. I can get it to power the crystal, I have the focusing all worked out, but I have to insulate it so much to prevent overheating, that the handle will be too long. It’s….unwieldy.”

Leia moved closer, considering. Luke had shown her all sorts of lightsabers over the years, from the old library of the Jedi Temple, to images on cave walls. One of her favorite designs had been that of the old guard who protected the Temple. Two blades with a long handle with ornate detailing.

“Have you considered a new design?”

“I don’t mind the handle being a bit longer, but the insulation will double the length. I’m not sure how well that will suit in a fight.”

Leia nodded, then moved over to the table, letting her fingers stroke the metal. She could feel the stir. Impressions from her father, his master, Luke, Ben, even Han. The crystal called to her, though not the way it had to Luke.

“When the Jedi Temple was at it’s height, there were Jedi selected at a very young age to guard the temple. They wore masks to hide their faces, they were not addressed by name, only by their rank as Guard.”

Rey shook her head.

“Sounds like what the First Order did with Finn.”

Leia nodded. She had thought much the same thing when Luke told her about them, that they sounded more oppressive than even some portions of the Empire.

“These guards had their own, special lightsabers. The blades were yellows and had a long, decorated handle with a blade coming out the top, and the bottom.”

She smiled up at Rey.

“Used in combat, they were much more like your old staff, than the lightsabers Jedi Knights were known to carry.”

Leia sat down, feeling older than she could remember feeling in quite some time. All the fighting, the injuries, the losses, they were beginning to pile up on her. She gestured for Rey to join her. The younger woman looked ready to bolt. She was still a bit uneasy around Leia, especially after Luke’s death.

“I have something important to tell you. Something that…I would prefer to tell you under better circumstances, however there will never be a perfect time, that much I’ve learned.”

Rey nodded, looking incredibly nervous.

“Rey, I am going to tell you something that may be very upsetting and you will probably have a lot of questions. I promise, I’ll answer everything I can, to the best of my abilities.”

Again, Rey nodded, her eyes wide and searching. She was spooked. Leia took off her large ring, toying with it between her hands, keeping her eyes on it rather than the woman before her.

“Ben was not Han and I’s only child. He was our first born, our only son. Some time after he was born, we… We had a daughter, Breha. She was Han’s little angel. Dark eyes, dark hair, everyone pointed out that she was just like Ben, looking exactly like me. And while there was a resemblance, I mostly saw Han when I looked at her, maybe a little of Luke sometimes. She was energetic, smiled all the time, loved playing with Han’s tools, laughed easily, and she just… everyone who met her, loved her. Even Ben was more warm and easygoing in her presence.”

Rey let out a breath.

“What happened to her?”

“The night that Ben… the night Kylo turned on Luke, we didn’t know what had happened, only that Luke sent a distress signal. Han and I flew as fast as we could to Luke and Ben, scared out of our minds at what could have happened, what we would find. Nothing could have prepared us for what we saw. Then we were… on our way back, with Luke… he was injured and the means to help him were burned, so we had to bring him home to take care of him. We got back and… there had been an attack… Breha was gone. That was it. Luke couldn’t take anymore. As soon as he was well enough, he took off.”

Rey nodded, feeling as if something else was going on here. Something Leia had not yet shared. Something life-altering.

“Before he left, he gave me something. He had been planning to make me a lightsaber of my own, with a green blade. He had not yet gotten around to building it when… So he left the crystal for me, in case I decided to build one for myself. Ben was to get Luke’s lightsaber someday, it had belonged to our father and Luke had no children to pass it on to, so naturally it was to Ben’s. The new lightsaber, I could give to Breha someday.”

Leia let out a wear y sigh. Then, she placed her ring on the table and reached with the other hand to take one of Rey’s tools. She fiddles for a moment, removing the metal band and twisting the dark blue crystal. Suddenly, the crystal broke, revealing a smaller, green crystal.

“I intended the crystal for Breha, figuring she would build her own lightsaber with her uncle’s help and Han’s guidance.”

Leia pushed the crystal to Rey.

“I still want my daughter to have the crystal her uncle found, the one meant for my lightsaber, for the daughter of Skywalker.”

Rey’s eyes went wide.

“But… my parents were drunks who traded me for cheap booze… They died years ago.”

“No. Kylo told you that. He must have sensed who you really were. That’s probably why he didn’t kill you during the several chances he had. Why his connection to you is so strong. Ben and Breha had such a bond, it almost rivaled what Luke and I shared. It seems that… your connection is still there.”

“I’m… your daughter?”, Rey asked, teary-eyed.

Leia nodded, tears quietly streaming down her cheeks.

“Yes.”

Rey sunk into her chair as if someone had let the air out of her. Leia felt as if the same had been done to her, but Rey needed her now. Perhaps more than she ever had before.

“I’m sorry I did not tell you sooner, I was blind. I couldn’t allow myself to see it.”

“Did Han know?”

Leia let out a long breath.

“He suspected. So did Maz. Luke too.”

“Chewie?”

Leia smiled.

“He has never had a doubt. He said you smell the same, just with more engine grease and no powder for your bum.”

Rey let out a watery half-laugh.

“Now what?”

Leia pushed the crystal closer.

“You add that to your lightsaber. You change the destiny of the Jedi, you take up the fight against the First Order, right beside me. We finish this, so that no one else has to grow up in a war-torn galaxy, without their parents.”

Nodding, Rey reached for the new, green crystal. It felt good in her hand, soothing, calm. She felt like it belonged in her hands, just as the one inside Luke’s made her feel when she held it.

“Thank you.”

Leia smiled, rising from her seat.

“That was meant to be yours. I’m only giving you a belated birthday gift.”

She began walking out, muttering an excuse about a meeting she was already very late for. She had almost made it out of the room before Rey called out to her.

“Yes?”

A pause, then Rey’s bright eyes focused in on Leia again.

“May I call you ‘mother’, or would you prefer I stick to Leia?”

Leia nearly lost it.

“Whichever one feels best to you, Rey. You’ll always be my Breha, named for my mother, though Han never called you that. Nor did Chewie, Lando, or anyone else who met you. It was always Rey.”

The young Jedi nodded. She looked so much like Han when he was dumbfounded, it stuck in Leia’s throbbing heart a bit more. She missed him so much, more than she had ever thought possible. Turning, Leia headed out to her meeting.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It had been a year since Rey learned was was Breha Skywalker-Organa-Solo. She introduced herself as Rey Solo now, not quite ready to loudly shout she was a Skywalker and not feeling ready to take on the mantle of General Organa’s daughter. Rey Solo felt right, it felt like who she was supposed to be, Breha Organa-Skywalker was the daughter of Princess Leia and Han Solo, little sister of Ben Skywalker, niece of Luke Skywalker, darling of her uncle Lando in Cloud City II. Rey Solo was a scavenger and pilot who fought Kylo Ren, flew beside Poe Dameron, took meetings with General Leia, and fought with a double-bladed lightsaber. Blue to honor the Skywalker side, green for the Organa side.

Now, standing beside Leia as she addressed a new class of recruits, Rey stood tall. They had just fought their first battle for the Resistance and they had won. It was a small battle, though an important one. Leia was instilling this victory, hoping it would continue to light their hearts after loses they would suffer in the future.

Once she had finished the speech, Leia ended it the same way she ended all of them.

“May the Force be with us.”

Everyone shouted out some response, the roar reaching the small dais they were standing on. Leia walked off, Rey shortly behind her, and Finn waiting a few feet off. He never came up with them, but was always waiting for Rey when they did come off, usually right beside Poe. As expected, the moment they were out of sight, Poe was pulling Leia into a chair.

She was doing better, lately, but these speeches and the traveling still was taking it out of her. She had barely been recovered from the hit that took out the entire leadership of that one Resistance ship, when she was captured and kept in a dank, cold, nasty cells for almost two weeks before Poe, Rey, Finn, Chewie, and Lando had found her. Then there had been an attack on an old base they were hiding below, and she had been caught in a cave-in, along with Poe. Together, these injuries and illness, not to mention the toll losing her husband, brother, friends, most of the Resistance, and her belief for a time, had taken on her.

Rey walked behind as Poe pushed the chair, Finn’s fingers threaded through Rey’s. He gave her hand a small squeeze when Leia began giving them orders for what needed to be done next. Rey listened. She had been trying to help Leia as much as possible, as had Poe, Finn, Lando, Chewie, and others.

They went down some winding corridors before finally coming to the shuttle Poe would pilot to get Leia back to her large battleship she commanded these days. The Falcon was sitting off to the right, waiting for Rey and Finn. Leia turned to Rey with a smile.

“Why don’t you and Finn take the Falcon and do some re-con, just look around. See what you can see?”

Rey grinned.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Leia smiled.

“And stay out of trouble, if you can.”

Finn nodded seriously, Rey just grinned before moving forward to place a kiss on Leia’s forehead and then dragging Finn off to her towards the Falcon.

“Kids.”, Poe teased.

Leia swatted his one hand over her shoulder.

“Like you and J are any better.”

Holding his hands up in a “don’t shoot” gesture, Poe grinned impishly.

“Guilty as charged.”

“Come on, we have work to do before I can turn the two of you loose for a couple days.”

“You feeling particularly generous for any particular reason, or is this a prep for some future, terrible mission you’re sending some of us on in the very near future?”

Leia smiled up at him, having no intention of telling him that he was half-right.

“I have my reasons and I keep my own council, which is why I’ve managed to keep almost all of my secrets. Now, chatterbox, let’s move. We’ve got important things to get to and not enough time to get any of it done.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Meanwhile, on the Falcon, Rey was switching everything on and in place for the flight. She had prepared, knowing Leia intended to give a few of them some time off. It was rare and Rey did not intend to waste a moment of it. Finn, meanwhile, was sitting wide-eyed in the co-pilot seat.

“I can’t believe she’s giving us this time.”

“She knows there will be a tough mission coming up soon. She wants us rested. And I think she feels a little guilty for how hard we’ve all been working, helping her take care of everything, keeping everyone in the dark about how fragile she is these days.”

Finn nodded.

“I feel bad leaving her behind.”

“I know, but she wants us to go.”

Finn nodded.

“Where are we going?”

“Don’t worry, you’ll like it. I promise.”

Finn smiled, watching Rey put the Falcon to rights for their trip.

“I trust you.”

Rey shot him a quick smile before she went back to fixing everything. He then sat back and watched. It had been a long time since he and Rey had some time alone, that amounted to more than a few stolen moments or maybe a half hour on the Falcon before or right after some meeting. She had taken on so much for Leia of late, and Finn wanted to help in any way her could.

Rey took off a moment later, heading out into the black. Finn passed the time by quizzing her. It was a fun game Poe and Lando taught them, and they both enjoyed playing. Rey was better at it, though Finn greatly enjoyed the game. It did not take long before they arrived at their destination. A frozen-over planet with giant trees, high mountains, and deep, white snow.

“There is a small outpost a little ways off, we can stay there for three days, unless Leia calls for us for an emergency. I brought supplies, so we only have to go outside if we want to play in the snow.”

Finn smiled.

“Really?”

Rey smiled and nodded, then grabbed Finn’s hand and dragged him back to the little supply room. She handed Finn a heavy coat, a scarf, a basket of food and drinks, while she threw on her jacket, and grabbed another bag of supplies. She double-checked that they had weapons in both containers, then out of habit, she checked the long saber-handle at her hip.

She and Finn exited the Falcon and took the small trek up to the little outpost. No one else was staying in any of the little houses built from logs. Finn looked like he was a kid getting the biggest birthday surprise ever. Rey was glad she had talked to Poe and BB-8. They were great planners.

Once they got to the little house they would be staying in, Finn and Rey moved to getting it ready. With the food and other supplies in place, Rey placed her lightsaber overtop the little stove. She figured that, if she needed it, she could pull it to herself quite easily. And it was close enough to be a comfort to her the way the engine of the Falcon was on nights when she couldn’t sleep, the way Finn’s voice did when her mind was racing.

“Rey?”

She turned around, a bit surprised.

“Huh?”

“I asked if you wanted something warm to drink. You didn’t answer.”

“Oh, sorry. Just thinking. Yes, something warm would be good.”

Finn smiled at her brightly, then went to moving to make them something to drink. Rey took care of getting a fire going and could smell the warm, spicy flavor in the air from the tea Finn was making. A recipe from Maz. The man had a great talent for making delicious things. Rey loved that about him. She loved a lot of things about him.

Fire going, warm drinks in hand, she and Finn moved to cuddle together in a wide chair, a blanket over their legs, and watching the snowfall through a large, wide window. It was perfect. Rey wanted to keep this forever.

“Rey?”

She hummed a response, burrowing further into Finn’s warm shoulder.

“I love you.”

She smiled a little wider, moving to press a kiss to the underside of Finn’s jaw, then cuddled back into him.

“Love you, too.”

Rey thought about how alone she used to be. How untouched, uncared for, lost and isolated. She had thought she’d been forgotten, tossed away. Now, she had her mother, her father’s ship, her uncles Lando and Chewie, the droids, her friends like Poe and Jess, and of course, Finn. He was there, like night and day, never wavering despite any distance between them.

Even in the middle of all the snow and ice, she never felt more warm. More cared for. Finn wasn’t some great warrior, a great fighter pilot, and it turned out he wasn’t a half-bad Jedi, but he made Rey feel safe in ways no one else did. He put her back together when everything tore her apart, he nursed her wounds when she came back hurt, held her when the nightmares overwhelmed her sleeping mind, and made her laugh when she was so tired that she thought she might never think straight again.

Burrowing more deeply into Finn’s embrace, Rey felt like she had finally found what she was looking for all this time. Home. Belonging. She loved her family, Poe, Leia, R2, Chewie, Finn, all of them. She smiled, looking over to see the hazy image of her uncle, an older man with white hair, a shorter green fellow with big ears, and a very tall man with grey hair and a beard, as they faded out in the edge of the room. Sometimes they checked in on Rey, and had learned to appreciate the guiding light.

“They back?”

Rey nodded.

“It’s a little creepy.”

“They’ve gone. Go back to sleep, Finn.”

“I wasn’t asleep. Thought you were.”

Rey poked him gently in the ribs.

“Sleep.”

He grinned down at her, moving to kiss her forehead.

“Yes princess.”

She wrinkled her nose and then smiled, tucked warmly in his arms, letting the snow cover their dwelling. For a few hours, the War, the galaxy, her legacy, all of it were on the other side of a long ride on the Falcon. For now, in this moment, it was just her and Finn. She drifted off, content and blissful.


End file.
